New York Mills' Comenale is O-D's boys basketball Player of the Year

Nick Comenale, the New York Mills senior who led the Marauders to a Class D state championship, is the Observer-Dispatch's All-Mohawk Valley Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

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Uticaod

Posted Apr. 6, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Posted Apr. 6, 2014 at 8:00 AM

When he was a freshman member of the junior varsity basketball team, Nick Comenale wasn’t just another face in the Glens Falls Civic Center’s final four crowd.

He was a “Marauder Maniac” with a hoop dream of his own.

“Yeah, that was the goal,” Comenale said. “It took three years, but we got it done.”

“We” would be New York Mills’ Marauders, and after a pair of tough playoff losses to unbeaten teams that went on to win state titles, what they did this season – with Comenale playing the starring role – was no dream.

Three years after watching Fred Russ and Matt Welch lead New York Mills to its first state championship since 1982, Comenale – the O-D’s All-Mohawk Valley Player of the Year – returned to the Glens Falls Civic Center as a senior co-captain and led the Marauders to another Class D title.

“Getting so close and losing twice, that’s all I thought about in the offseason,” Comenale said. “That was tough.”

As a sophomore, his five 3-pointers and 19 points -- all in the first half of his Carrier Dome debut in the Section III D-1/D-2 regional qualifier – were not enough to end Sackets Harbor’s run to its first state title.

A year later, Comenale helped carry the Marauders all the way back to Glens Falls, only to lose to local hotshot and eventual state champ Argyle in the semifinals.

“I think that bothered Nick, that we didn’t win it last year,” New York Mills head coach Mike Adey said. “You can even go back to that Sackets Harbor game the year before that. … I still watch film of that game every once in a while, when he was a sophomore putting on a show in the Carrier Dome. It was pretty obvious right from the start that Nick was going to be something special, and he’s improved every single year.

“He’s a smart kid who really loves the game, and people are always telling me what a high-level kid he is. It’s not just his ability. He plays hard and he keeps his mouth shut. That’s just the type of kid he is. He’s special.”

Comenale, the player, knew there was work to be done on and off the court if that dream of winning a state title was going to become a reality.

At first, he was widely regarded as a “catch-and-shoot shooter” with range – “I couldn’t really do much else,” he said – but with associate head coach Brian Adey’s help, he worked on putting the ball on the floor, getting by people, and “finishing through contact.”

Page 2 of 2 - The work paid off. Besides setting school records for 3s in a season (63) and career (127), the long and lithe Comenale was able to get to the basket and the foul line with remarkable regularity.

“Nick’s always been a really good shooter,” Brian Adey said. “Now, he can shoot off the dribble and score on the move, and he’s a better passer, too. He’s always been unselfish, but he got better at making the right pass at the right time.

“He wasn’t afraid to move the ball around and get the best shot that we could – it was him a lot, but he knew it didn’t have to be him.”

Comenale averaged 24.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists this season. The 6-foot-3 guard also was a disruptive force on defense, using his length and athleticism to average a team-high 3.6 steals per game and force countless other turnovers.

Scoring remained his forte, however, and when his shots weren’t falling in the Class D state title game and the Marauders found themselves trailing Coleman Catholic by five points, an undeterred Comenale took matters into his own hands and kept taking the ball to the basket.

“I knew I hadn’t been shooting well. I knew, as a senior and a leader, that it was my time,” he said. “Underclassmen don’t really understand what that last game really means. For them, there’s always next year. As a senior, you understand it.”

Comenale scored all of the team’s 12 fourth-quarter points, finishing with a game-high 22, and earning tournament MVP honors as New York Mills capped a 23-1 season with a 57-50 overtime victory in the state championship game.

“I just told him, ‘Nick, you’ve got to take over the game,’ and that’s what he did,” Mike Adey said. “Those were my exact words – ‘You have to do it now,’ – and he did. It was crunch time, and Coleman Catholic knew where he was going, too. They just couldn’t stop the kid, and the day before that (in the semifinals) he just made mincemeat out of Moriah.

“Nick’s the best Class D player in the state, there is no doubt in my mind. He’s got to be. There’s nobody who played the schedule that we did and he was the best player on the floor, without a doubt, in every game we played.”